up independents and democrats. so it's a challenging equation. >> seems like it's going to come out to voter turnout, as everyone is expecting. >>s as always, yes. thank you, jonathan. we'll see you a "morning joe" he in just a little bit. to all of our viewers, sign up for the newsletter at signup. signup.axios.com. >> "morning joe" starts right now. >> a democrat, a press release comes out and you guys are asking me about it in this top race of the country, it's ridiculous. can can we talk about economic opportunity? >> do you know if any of your staff is getting their health care through the aca? >> dennis, can we please talk about the things that matter to most voters instead of repeating the press releases. this is ridiculous. honestly. do you have anything to talk about, like the caravan? >> she doesn't think health care

matters to most americans. she's running for senator in arizona and she doesn't think that matters to people in arizona. in fact, republicans have been talking about it all this week. this isn't even political opinion. it's an objective fact. republicans have been trying to kill pre-existing conditions for several years. they've been voting against obamacare, what, about 50, 60 times in the house? and now they don't want to answer the questions. they're flip-flopping, they're lying. begging to talk about it. >> they want to talk about the caravan. this caravan -- and i'm sorry to go a little bit to the side. i could talk about boston baseball and god knows i certainly will pretty soon. but this caravan that donald trump keeps talking about, that fox news keeps talking about, that people on the right keep talking about as some last ditch desperate sad pathetic effort

to -- again, use nonwhite people to try to scare white people into voting for republicans, it's over a thousand miles away. it's not going to be here for at least a month, maybe if they go tijuana, the safer route, it may not be here for months. here is mark herting, caravan is 1,000 miles away at least a month away. but midterms are in 12 days and deploying federal troops instead of anything else tells me a lot. james mattis, the secretary of defense is so concerned about this caravan that we are sending troops to the border. let me repeat that again. we are sending troops to the border because of this urgent national emergency. i only hope they go there stocked with two things.

one, halloween candy and two, thanksgiving turkeys because halloween and thanksgiving and the beginning of december, the start of christmas season, will all again before the migrants even come close to the border if they even get there. you know, in april, when we heard this was happening -- and oh, my god, it's horrible, an invasion. they ended up arresting 12 people that tried to cross the border. did you see yesterday while pipe bombs were being sent to secretaries of state and presidents, did you say that the department of homeland security wasn't concerned about public officials getting pipe bombs? she instead went down and it was sort of this top gun moment where -- went down to the border -- >> it looks so cool. >> to talk about the urgency of this migrant crisis which,

again, i remind you it's not coming for months if it comes at all. >> but not only are we talking -- or is the president talking about the caravan like it's some imminent crisis, he's now talking inside the white house about shutting down the border to migrants. now, whether or not he'll actually do that, i don't know. >> no. >> but what he's saying to his voters is this is how bad this is. this is how seriously i'm taking it. i'm sending troops to the border and i'm shutting it down. i don't think he will actually send troops to the border. and on november 7th, joe, i think the issue of the cara van will mysteriously evaporate from the president's mind and from the front page of the papers. >> and from fox news. they're doing it around the clock. follow the -- and you look at the tweets of people, michael steele, that we both know and we both like and we both used to

respect and they're tweet background the im thminent invan showing mobs of -- hold on, mobs of what? mop mobs of nonwhite people. the others. the others are coming to get us. we have to sent.troops to the border. jesus. help. wait, what? they're over a thousand miles away and they -- wait, what? >> there's some babies. >> they may not be here until december? hold on, what? only 12? only 12? tried to cross the border the last time when this was -- the well, wait, michael, it's almost as if these republicans don't want to talk about health care. they want to distract people from donald trump's hatred, rhetoric. so they want to talk about, as

we saw in that clip, somebody saying arizona voters don't care about health care. they don't care about pre-existing conditions. instead, they only care about a caraen van that ain't coming for a couple of months. but we have to go down in our top gun glasses and sit on the border -- >> but they did look cool. >> what i noticed from that graphic just now is that the top two things that have the most direct impact on the american people at 23% are health care and the president. immigration is number seven. but this is the hype machine. this is the gin up the base machine. this is the wrap around to complete the effort to get the base to come out to sustain that energy that, you know, i'm ready to go and vote for the

president. recommend, the president is putting himself on the ballot. yet in the same breath will say, well, if this doesn't work, it's not my fault. well, you can't have it both ways. this is either about you or it isn't. if you're telling us this is about you by telling candidates tell your vote toers vote for me, as well, then yeah, all of this is about you and all of this is on you. and you're right, joe, on november 7th, the idea of this massive influx -- oh, and don't forget the middle easterners who happen to be tucked neatly within that group of migrants coming across the border. all of that becomes, what -- no, we didn't say it was going to the happen right now. we just wanted to let people know it could happen or they'll be here soon. and, you know, their work will be done. >> it's coming. it's coming. and all before the election. talking about sending troops to

the border when you've got a couple of months' lead time and sending out the ahead of dhs secretary to the border when you have pipe bombs being sent to former secretaries of state, presidents -- >> she's the head of homeland security. >> how pathetic. let's just -- you know, with i just want to talk to you, my friends at home, because you all are my friends and i know you know that and i feel a special closeness to you. i just want to protect you today. if for some reason one of your friends or relatives sent you something on facebook or twitter or an e-mail and wants you to send it along to somebody talking about the imminent invasion, please, please, don't do it. don't do it. just step away from your.laptop.

step away from the kitchen blender or anything that might do your extremities any harm and walk outside and thank jesus that we can use our own minds because they are lying to you because they don't want you to know that they've cut tons and tons and tons of taxes for donald trump's richest friends and donald trump is bragging about it to his friends in mar-a-lago and they're taking away your health care. they don't want you to know that. democrats can't do this. they can't say this because apparently they're too dumb to say this in the national campaign ad so let me help them. they're doing this caravan nonsense because they've cut taxes for the richest people on the planet. not the 1%, the 000.01%. and donald trump, after he did

it, flew down to mar-a-lago on his big old jet and he sat around the table with billionaire friends and said i just made you all a lot of money today. and then guess what? then they went after your health care. and mitch mcconnell said they're coming after your social security and your medicare to pay for tax cuts for the rich. that's what's happening in your life, whether you're in georgia or central florida, or whether you're in iowa. that's what's happening in your life. and they don't want you to know that. so guess what they're doing? they're talking about brown people that are coming and they're going to the take over your towns. because they think you are stupid. i know you're not. i know you're smart enough to protect youf children. i know you're smart enough to

protect your mother. i'm sure a lot of you you, like me, you have a mom that has challenges or you have a dad that may have dementia that depends on medicaid to take care of them. you need health care to take care of your young children with pre-existing conditions. republicans, they've been spending the past couple of years trying to take that away from you and they've been doing it because they cut taxes for the richest multi national corporations and for donald trump's richest friends and for donald trump's own family. now, you don't have to believe me. if you don't have a google machine in your living room, go next door. >> yeah. ask them if you can borrow their google machine and look it up. by the way, since your neighbors might tell you all this fake news, why don't you look up the information, like, from

government websites. and see what's happening and check out that national debt while you're at it. because they're stealing money from your children and your grandchildren, as well, to do what donald trump said, give tax cuts to all of his richest friends at mar-a-lago and his family. now, i know you're not dumb. and if i can get a praise jesus that you're smart enough to look into this on your own, i just -- i'm so grateful and thankful this friday morning that you will do that. but mika. >> yeah. >> we will not be distracted from the truth out there that brown people are not coming to invade america, that this is all about republicans that don't want to talk about the fact that they've gutted people's health care. so it's all about distraction. you know how i say james

carvell, look at the bird over there. look at the bird. but now it's republicans doing it instead of the democrats. >> it's all about distraction and it has such a racist twist to it that it's quite tragic. with secretary nielsen along the border there standing there leading apparently fox news, their the broadcast with the reporter standing on the border, as well. i know schepp won't do that. you watch fox, you might want to watch schepp's show because he will lead with the news and not play this game with the presidency. but some people might want to alert secretary nielsen to the terrorist attack on our democracy that transpired over the past 48 hours. some people might want to the alert people at the head of homeland security about the attack on our homeland. some people might want to let her know she can take off her ray-bans and head back to washington and do something more productive than mislead the american people. we're supposed to be in boca

this morning, but it's at a whole new level and we figured we would stick to the news now. we were excited about talk you background the run up to the midterms and meeting with voters. >> we can go there next week. >> we'll try. along with joe, willie and me, you saw michael steele. we have former u.s. attorney for the district of alabama and msnbc contributor joyce advance. special msnbc contributor clint watts and donnie deutsch is with us, as well. so let's get to the what we know in the nationwide manhunt in connection to those pipe bombs sent to leading democrats and critics of the president including two former presidents. senior law enforcement officials tell nbc news that investigators are now looking into whether some of those packages passed through the same mail facility in florida, possibly those addressed to barack obama, hillary clinton, john brennan, eric holder and maxine waters.

officials are now dealing with ten separate packages that are all similar. the latest was a second package addressed to former vice president joe biden which was intercepted at a mail facility in wilmington, delaware. earlier yesterday morning, a similar package was discovered at robert da the narrow's facility. investigators tell nbc news that at least some of the devices were poorly made and had no possibility of exploding. we're told it is unclear if the flaws were intentional to make a convincing hoax or just a bad design or construction. >> joyce, this is very personal to you. your father-in-law was a federal judge who was killed by a pipe bomb. talk about this sort of investigation. how do authorities approach this sort of investigation? and talk about the real risk,

how it changed your family's life, these sort of attacks. >> you know, bombers are a unique kind of criminal. they try to inspire fear, but they're cowards. they're not willing to engage or put themselves at risk. they act from afar. so investigators start off using that psychological prosecute profile. typically, they're looking just for a single bomber, someone who will make even have no prior criminal history. this is an unusual and a very interesting situation because it appears that it's possible that there could be more than one person working on the bombings. we have mailings, we have deliveries, so investigators will look not just at the devices for their physical characteristics, they'll also be trying to decide what the profile of the person or people involved will be in this situation. and most importantly, identify them, bring them to justice so that they provide no further threat to people. once that threat is minimized,

once they have people in custody, then they can work further on investigating why and how and how much. >> clint watts, let's talk about the gravity of this incident and because of the list of the targets, you have two former presidents, president obama's family as well, his wife and daughter, former first lady. you have a former vice president, a former secretary of state in hillary clinton, a former attorney general, a former cia director, a sitting congresswoman, robert de niro, george soros. the fbi doesn't know who did this yet or which people did this, but you look at that list and obviously you can make a characterization of what kind of person the target was. they've all been prominent critics of president trump. why would the fbi be looking this morning? >>. >> they will keep all options

open. think back to the d.c. snipers and the white box truck that wasn't. think back to even the anthrax plot. they're going to keep all possibilities open at this point. joyce made an excellent point about the way this is played out is it may not be just one bomber. you're talking about some deliveries. you've seen them go to that mailing facility down in florida now and secretary nielsen said, you know, we're pretty convinced at least that some of these came from within florida. at the same point, one of the first stories that i saw said that the one at george soros's house was actually a delivery. this could mean it could be a team. they could be loosely organized or affiliated. you could have different bombmakers or different types. and i imagine the fbi is trying to stay very wide in the investigation. the one silver lining on of it's not good news, it's a bad situation, is that the bombs are

not detonated. i looked at one of the packages. john brennan, for example, they sent it to the wrong location. he is a contributor here with nbc news and msnbc and not cnn and there was a misspelling. each of those clues is something you can look for. one thing our politics has done over the last couple of years is it's made people think they could get away with this or it's not a that big of a deal. this is going to be a really big deal. these are federal officials. these are people that are being watched. there wasn't real good reconnaissance done. the secret service is great at their job. i imagine we'll see some major advancements in this case over the weekend. meanwhile, president trump continues to take digs at the media. at 2:48 this morning, the

president tweeted funny how lowly rated cnn and others can criticize. the post was then quickly dlated. but he completed his thought 30 minutes later tweeting funny how lowly rated cnn and others can criticize me -- >> this is at 2:30 in the morning? yeah. what is this about? maybe someone had his phone because this would be weird behavior. >> maybe he's very nervous. >> anyhow, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of bombs and ridiculously comparing this to september 11th and the oklahoma city bombing. yet when i criticize them, this the go wild and scream it's just not presidential. no, i think what is not presidential is mocking your staff and they plead for you to

not -- >> or, at least call. >> asking democrats and republicans all to come to the white house and collectively demand a stop to the violence and collectively show unity. that i will say very calmly, and i'm not screaming, that is terribly unpresidential. terribly un-american and terribly sad for this country. >> the news organizations had bombs mailed to them who donald trump had been attacking -- >> calling the enemy of the people. >> -- and calling the enemy of the people and the president has been warned time and time again that that sort of rhetoric would lead to violence.

well, these republicans -- it's hard to fathom that i was even a member of this party as sad as they are right now. but republicans, instead of offering condoll the -- condolences to the human beings that work there, they actually mocked and ridiculed them and attacked them. here is rnc chair woman rhonda mcdaniel, senator ted cruz and newt gingrich attacking reporters. >> with we have seen the media be unprecedented in their negative coverage of of this incident. and the president is right in saying let's have civility in our news coverage. let's have some fair minded news coverage in this country and not have the biases that's so strong on other networks, especially. >> look, it's the media doing

what the media does, which is any narrative that they can twist against trump, they will do so. >> start with the people. >> why don't they get help, except i think that they earn it. look, if you're overseas and you watch cnn international, you know the nationals don't have to watch any propaganda television. there's no more anti-american network than cnn international. >> this is a fox news contributor. >> yeah. i work for fox news. i used to work for cnn. what are you going to call them? >> you're going to call them reporters and journalists who pissed off hillary clinton's campaign. for two years. >> guilty. >> hillary clinton and her campaign will had still tell you you today that they think that cnn and the "new york times" and

and it is washington post and "morning joe" and other news outlets that were relentless in asking questions about the clinton foundation and about her e-mail server, they will to this day blame the news media for her loss. that's what happens. but whether it's hillary clinton who hates the press or the obamas who i personally think they had a free pass a lot of times from the press, but they always thought the press was overly hostile to them. gosh, ronald reagan was eviscerated by the press. george h.w. bush, george w. bush, they were eviscerated by the press. hell, even newt beginning are rich when he was speaker of the house was raked over the coals. never called them, though, enemy

of the people. never sent out videos, cake caricatures of them beating up cnn. but never did any of the things that donald trump is doing that would lead to threats. >> joe, we could stay on the air for 24 hours and talk about the attacks on democracy starting where you started the show, with these poor families coming into this country. the same way my grandparents came from hungary. that's who we are. our boarders are open and we take people in. this caravan is one out of a thousand people of immigrants coming in this year. we can say oh, no, that's not who we are. or tell us to look at our president who is basically saying bombs are being sent to people. but no, it's not the anger or rhetoric i'm putting out there. it's not the insane act of terrorists. it's the news people doing it.

now it is on us, joe. we can't give anybody any more information. if you have not been living in this country for the past 24 months, there is no way to shake the argument at this point, other than us now, looking in the mirror who we are. if you as an american are seeing what those three republicans are saying yesterday, if if you as an american are seeing the lies about prescription drugs, if you as an american are not understanding what's happening in health care, that's it. there's nothing more -- joe, we can't deliver the news any more. we can't do any more messaging. it's bait. and we all need at this point and we need to tap our friends on the shoulder and tap their friends on the shoulder and maybe even going up to some trump people, not the crazies, and say we know you like your guy, but maybe there needs to be a check and balance. it's not on us any more. it's not on ted cruz. it's on us, man. that's all we have left on this

one. we can't howl at the moon any more. as you and i talk today, there's thousands of messages going out there. it's up to us now. there's nothing more to say. that is it. look in the mirror. do you believe in this or do you believe in that? >> whether it's 12 days before an election on or 12 days after an election, you have to get the facts out there. the facts are that republicans have tried to repeal obamacare and pre-existing conditions and governors like rick scott have sued to get rid of that guarantee. and, you know, if they lie 12 days after the election, what's our job? it's to tell the truth to the american people. >> and you're right, the caravan is the way out for a lot of those candidates. we saw it no mert than in the

clip that we made as we came into the show which is martha mcsally running in arizona, she voted to repeal, as a member of congress, the affordable care act. she wanted to get rid of obamacare which takes care of pre-existing conditions. that's why she doesn't want to answer a question about health care. she explicitly said, with using her inside voice, that let's talk about the caravan. let's talk about the thing that we -- >> i want to ask you a quick question. what do you do at this point when everything we've said we have all said, everybody has said on both sides a trillion times. i don't think there's any human being on this planet that does not -- hasn't got these messages. what do we do at this point? like, yes, you've got to keep saying it. is there a different way of saying it? is there a different movement? because it's baked at this

point. is there anything else we can do at this moment? >> the thing is, donny, and, of course, there are a lot of democrats that don't really appreciate when i offer suggestions. but it seems to me, michael, that instead of sitting there talking about donald trump's tweets, he ought to say, hey, listen, i know that they're -- like james carvel used to distract from clinton, you ought to say keep your eyes fixed on what's going to impact your children, your family, your ageing mom, your ageing dad, and know that these republicans have voted not to take medicaid expansion into their states and that's going hurt your mom that has dementia in the nursing facility and they're working around the clock to take away protection for pre-existing

conditions. instead of talking about the craziness of donald trump's tweets, talk about how this is going to impact him. donald trump himself bragging about tax cuts for billionaires and then everybody saying we're going to pay for it by gutting health care. that's where people live, right? >> that's exactly where they live. and that reality, in addition to the rhetoric of cutting these programs, medicare, medicaid, etcetera, is being met with the fact that people are opening envelopes now that shows how much their health care premiums are going up starting next year. so that, again, puts pressure on the lack of conversation around tax cuts because even if you got a tax cut, suddenly that tax cut is evaporated by the fact that you've just seen a 30% increase

in your health care premiums as a result of the vote to cut obamacare. so the reality is there for a lot of republicans who, like mcsally, don't want to go into that space. so you have republicans out there saying, oh, no, i absolutely voted for preserving this particular part of the plan when they're leading lawsuits to overturn or to cut obamacare. still ahead on "morning joe," as our pentagon correspondent points out, the parking lot at the defense department doesn't seem to suggest a massive military operation against -- >> but wait, aren't they taking halloween candy and turkeys down there? >> didn't we have a threat to our democracy? nonetheless, the president's twitter feed is a warning of a national emergency.

it's not the pipe bombs attacking former presidents, a former cia director, anybody who criticized the president of the united states. that does not seem to be concerning at all to this administration. >> who are we going to talk to, mika? >> but caravans are. nbc's hans nichols joins us next. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. what does it take to make digital transformation actually happen? it takes dell technologies, a family of seven technology leaders working behind the scenes to make the impossible... reality. we're helping to give cars the power to read your mind from anywhere... and we're helping up to 40% of the nation's donated blood supply to be redirected to the people that need it most. magic can't make digital transformation happen... but we can. that skills like teamwork, attention to detail, and customer service are critical to business success.

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so as we talk about this caravan that is still a thousand miles from the border, we got reports that the white house is considering sending 800 to a thousand troops to the border to help handle the situation. we know the united states military can't engage in law enforcement. what would be the united states army's role along the border as it pertains to this group of

migrants coming up a thousand miles away? >> it would essentially be in some sort of assisting capacity to help in terms of whatever the mandate might be for demanding a breach at the border or helping move equipment. we've seen this, for instance, you might see federal military launch for hurricane relief or something like that. hurricane andrew, if you remember a long time ago was a typical mission for that. you're essentially saying this is an emergency. as we talked at the beginning of the hour, this would be the equivalent of putting police at the border to deal with people moving from -- 800 is probably about a battalion, probably. they're not going to have weapons. they're not going to be doing typical military. so what is it they're going to be doing, other than border strengthening, helping with observations? there was a program known as jtf-6 for example one time

during the 90s and 2,000s where the military would work in terms of border securing for temperature valence or using their military equipment to help the border patrol, for example, or dhs. but it's a really interesting deployment because imagine you're these 800 soldiers. if you've been in the middle very much, you've just got back or are deploying to afghanistan, maybe to iraq, maybe you went and did ebola relief. now you're looking at spending the holidays essentially down staring at the border with mexico waiting for a migrant cara van that may be months away if it ever shows up and what exactly those tasks are. i think it's tough in terms of how to handle this and what are we trying to achieve. >> and significant for the reasons you just laid out, that the president did, in fact, call this a, quote, national emergency that has legal ramifications for what the troops can do down there. joyce, as we saw the secretary

of hillary clinton down on the border yesterday doing an interview about this cara van that is a thousand miles away of migrants walking up with their families, while all this was going on across the country with presidents of the united states, secretaries of state, attorneys general, cia directors being targeted by pipe bombs, i'm curious what you thought as a prosecutor about the focus of homeland security, the focus of the federal government and the allocation of resources to address it. >> in the last 48 hours, we've had a major terrorist attack on our country. we don't know who is behind it. we don't know what their motivation is. but we have this credible threat and an attempt to assassinate, perhaps, with many senior leaders in our country. we need to have a singular focus among all of our law enforcement resources on finding out what is going on and why. the president, like always, is trying to frame this up as a debate about the media at that tacking him. i think one thing that will be encouple can bent upon all of us in the next few days, perhaps

weeks, is to make sure that the focus is maintained on who is trying to attack our democracy and why. >> joyce, clint can, always great to get your perspective, especially this morning. thanks so much. we will go live to the pentagon when we come right back on "morning joe." i'm ken jacobus, i'm the owner of good start packaging. we distribute environmentally-friendly packaging for restaurants. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. that's right, $36,000. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. my unlimited 2% cash back is more than just a perk, it's our healthcare. can i say it? what's in your wallet?

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is there any scenario under which if people push their way across the border they could be shot at? >> we do not have any intention to shoot at people. they will be apprehended, however. but i also take my officers personal safety extraordinarily seriously. they have the ability to defend themselves. >> so if shot at, they could shoot back? >> no, i think they have to work through that. >> willie, what with are we saying? they're asking about shooting at nothing across the border. are you going to shoot at them? they're not here for two months, probably, or a month. may not even come. only 14 apprehended last time. can you believe that? they're asking -- talking about what the terms of conflict are

going to be for this invasion of america that's never going to happen. and i just -- you know, i was listening to clint. you do so much work for military veterans and for people that have given so much of their life to protecting and defending this country. and how -- i mean, how sad would it be for these people that have been sent to afghanistan and iraq and also humanitarian relief across the globe to think they're going to come home and finally be able to spend some time with their family and be sent down to mexico, the border of mexico for a caravan that's not coming for a political exercise to make donald trump look strong before the election. what a joke. >> and they're going to be sitting down there for months if they're sent down there soon, a month, maybe two months, waiting for a handful of families to come to the border. i don't know and i maybe give

the benefit of the doubt. i didn't hear the full context of the question. but why are we talking about shooting at these people? i don't know. >> oh, my god. >> i don't know why the conversation has gone there when, in fact, the entire issue is propaganda effectively to get people out to the polls in 11 days. and now we're escalating that propaganda and that conversation to talk about shooting people at the border. it's beyond me. >> let's go to the pentagon. >> it is. >> nbc news correspondent hans nichols is there. what is your understanding of the operation that could be signed off on here that james mattis could send 800 to a thousand troops to the boarder and what exactly would be their role there? >> well, we don't know what their role is in part because mattis hasn't fully reviewed and signed thisser order. he's on the plane tonight head to go bay rain. everybody here at the pentagon is waiting for this official order from mattis. then we'll see what the shape actually is. there are two prospects here.

one, this is entirely cosmetic. this is a way to say trump is sending federal troops. there's still authorization to send another 1900 guard troops down here. there's a question here, why are they sending federal troops when they have space on the earlier national guard authorization? but if it's not cosmetic and you task them with things like border reinforcement, you could see them laying concertina wire, having a wall type of situation. you could have isr and that means drones up in the air. there are a lot of military assets. we don't know whether or not this is federalizing the border or if this is cosmetic. and that's not such a hypothetical joke regarding someone being shot. in 1997, the marines shot an 18-year-old american citizen, a goat herder, the last time there was a mass mobilization. you had a lot of federal troops preventing drug flow from the southern border. so that memory is still very raw

here and there's some institutional memory of that. guys. >> hans, is there any pushback from the pentagon on this order? is james mattis saying to the white house i'm not sure we need a thousand armed infantry men along the border? >> he really only got this order before he got on the plane last night. because they needed the order to come from dhs and then he was going to review it on the plane. he's expected to sign it. and what the troops are tasked with. are they going to be tasked with intelligence? are they going to send engineers down? that's indication they're going to use federal troops to do something they couldn't do through congress and politically. >> the president has declared this a national emergency which as he knows gives had him wider latty attitude to use his troops. >> we're not talking about drug dealers streaming across the

border. ft.'s own administration has statistics that show that it's like .003%. of these people may even be affiliated. there won't away november. there won't really even be in december. i cannot imagine that james mattis would send a single troop to the border and make them miss the holidays with their families so donald trump looks stronger 12 days from now in a midterm election. because that -- we know after the missed term election any troops sent to the border are probably going to be brought right back. it's a total waste of u.s. dollars and attention especially -- again, as joyce said, with at a time when we're coming off all of these pipe bombs being sent to former presidents and cia directors. >> and that's why i asked hans if there's been pushback from mattis. maybe there has been privately.

but to go through this charade to get voters out to the polls and using united states troops as props in that charade is wrong on its face and i'll be interested to see if general mattisalong with it. >> i can't imagine he would do it. >> we'll see. coming up this morning a closer look at the president's mid-term strategy, playing to his base. we're back in a moment. hi, kids! i'm carl and i'm a broker. do you offer $4.95 online equity trades? great question. see, for a full service brokerage like ours, that's tough to do.

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there are 11 days until the mid-terms where participation usually drops but new numbers shows early voting has outpaced the votes cast at this point in 2016. 8.1 million early or absentee ballots have been counted. that's about 200,000 more votes than the numbers cast in the two weeks before election day 2016. according to axios president

trump will continue with his ral zwrois fire up the bas joining us now national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. what more can you tell bus this? >> we analyzed the rallies the president has held and ones we know he's scheduled, including, by the way, from the about like next week they plan to doralies in two different states per day. 34 rallies we have so far, only nine have been in congressional districts that hillary clinton won, which tells you everything you need to know. there is no attempt to persuade, this is all about revving up his voters and one of the other issues they've had, we've been talking about this quite a lot, the republicans that are in these swing districts, districts that hillary clinton won, i'm

thinking of illinois, they don't want trump in their districts and if he goes in there he revs up independents and democrats. so it's a very clear strategy of base motivation and trying to avoid places where he's just going to rev up the other side. >> donny deutsch, when the sides get revved up that's when they go out to vote more. we had some stats come out yesterday showing that we got more voters, as mika just said, more voters voting early than 2016. democrats were ahead of republicans at this point in 2016. republicans are now ahead of democrats in 2016, and you were saying well what can anybody on tv do? well it comes down to democrats. are they going to stay home again this year like they did in 2016 and elect donald trump or are they going to get out and vote? if you don't have the evidence now that donald trump needs some

checks and balances like james madison foresaw, if you don't get that now, i don't think you're ever going to get it, are you, donnie? >> amen. my brother, my good friend, it is on us. the most powerful thing in advertising is word-of-mouth. you can do ads, you can have speeches. at the end of the day when your neighbor taps you on the shoulder and said i drove that car it's really good. it's incumbents on the democrats now to force every one of us to get out. maybe engage a trump voter. keep your guy. maybe we need a little guardrail. it's on us. the really scary thing, joe, the thing that makes me so sad, god forbid if the republicans keep the house what does it say about us? that the majority of this country believes and wants us to be that other thing. >> i'm sorry, donnie, it will never say that.

it will never be that way because, donnie, donald trump is in the low 40s in post polls. he spends a lot of his time in the 30s. the only way -- i know you love alabama football analogies. i'll give them to you. our comparisons. alabama in 2018 cannot be beaten. they just can't. i'm dead serious. there's not a football team that can line up against nick sabin's crimson tide and beat them. you know who can beat alabama? alabama. nobody else can beat alabama than alabama. in this case, republicans can never get enough votes to win elections. >> if we come out. >> the only way democrats can lose is if they beat themselves by staying at home. they are in the majority. they have a coalition.

they have demographics on their side. they can win every election from now until 2085. if they stay home they lose. >> every one of us for the next 10, 11 days has to talk to every person we know, gut check time, are you going? it's down to the people. this is what this democracy is all about. that's it. we got no more moves. we got to just get our brothers and sisters and fathers and grandparents and it's on us. we can't whine and complain any more. >> do you that, donnie. and, willie, it looks like right nourks donnie will be talking to his friends and family, it looks like the upper east side may just walk lock step for the democratic party. >> at least between 72nd and 86th street. >> i'm taking a bus. i'm going down south. >> i take exception. alabama didn't have vanderbilt

on its schedule. as the white house and president trump looks at this mid-term election, two partner for you. has it conceded that the house is going to go and they are trying to shore up the senate by sending the president to places like montana. number two, what is the white house's greatest fear if they lose the house? is it the subpoena power of the house? is at any time idea of impeachment? >> there's actually a very neat answer to your question and it's the same answer. yes. the evidence that they are preparing for or believe that the democrats are going to take the house is that they are now preparing for life under that scenario. we first reported at axios a couple of weeks ago, john kelley has formed a small working group with the white house counsel's office involved to prepare, to start to prepare for what it looks like life under democratic control. and the thing they are most concerned about, most alert to is democrats taking over these

key investigative committees like oversight, house intelligence, and, you know, we've reported, the republicans actually -- there's a senior office on the hill that's compiled a spreadsheet which we published some of. of all the investigations the democrats want to conduct but republicans have stymied and pushed aside because they control these committees, those investigations come online. you have trump's connections with russia. the trump organization. what is wilbur ross up to with conflicts of interest. there is a long, long list. the white house counsel's office has not been prepared for the blizzard of subpoenas that's coming in their direction. >> jonathan swan, thank you very much. it's just past the top of the hour. along with joe, willie and me we have legendary ad man donny

deutsch. former chairman of the republican national committee, michael steele. former aide to the george h. w. bush white house, elise jordan. we have jeremy bash. and associate editor of the "washington post" eugene robinson. let's start with you, eugene. let's keep the discussion on the mid-terms going here. your latest in "the washington post" is a pep talk for democrats. and you write in part, dear democrats, you can do this. stop fretting and second guessing. get out of your own way. concentrate on turning out the vote. and remember you have everything to gain in this mid-term election and nothing to lose. i say you have nothing to lose because that is literally true. republicans control both chambers of congress. most governorships.

most state legislatures. and, of course, the white house which isn't up for grabs at this time. the great blues artist muddy waters put it best, your can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you never had. so stop worrying democrats that your house majority might be slipping away. you don't have a house majority. but the odds of you winning one look excellent if you step up and grab it. so, gene, continue with the thought. how? how, joe? >> gene, i was talking to health care professional a couple of days ago. a person whose been a friend for a long time. i said what it? she said people that were coming in, were so depressed about democrats and we went through this. i said what is it with democrats they are so deflated. so battered. you beat a conservative and you

know what we do? we're like rocky and rocky i. we eat raw eggs at 4:00 in the morning. we chase chickens blindfolded. he run upstairs. we have people come up and punch us in the face and we drink the blood and spit it out. you beat a conservative, and a conservative goes home and just gets really, really angry and says how am i going to destroy them at the polls? these democrats, i've never seen anything like this, i just want to go home. i'm sad. history depends on what they do over the next 12 days, gene. >> it does. look i spent a lot of time, joe, doing what i tried to do. just grabbing people by the shoulders and say, look, you're the majority. you are the majority. you just vote.

all you have to do is vote. you get your friends to vote. stop moping around. their enthusiasm is up. there's an election coming and they vote in mid-terms elections and you should too because you'll win. look, maybe -- i hope, i'm hoping it will be different this time. it needs to be different this time. get out and vote. everything you said in that last hour, everything donnie said in that last hour get out and vote and you win. it's that simple. >> you know, elise, a lot of republicans, former republicans and a lot of people like you -- we've hung around conservatives our whole life. we know how conservatives fight. we know how conservatives win campaigns especially on the local level. and whether i'm talking to

whoever, you look at democrats shaking your head going no! no, this is not the way you respond to a loss. you respond to a loss by, by doubling down your efforts. but right now they are so deflated, it's just really -- it's pretty stunning. >> well, democrats just need to get out of their own way. the momentum really seemed to be behind the blue wave and then in the past couple of weeks i've been lucky to get out on the campaign trail with lord ashcroft polls and doing focus groups in new hampshire and new jersey and iowa and we just left minnesota. it's been interesting to see the so-called kavanaugh effect and how it has impacted the electorate. on the one hand you got republicans and reluctant trump supporters who are really energized from it and i expected

the same from democrats. but you don't really see the same intensity from the loss and now this could just be the voters that we encounter but i actually was surprised that a win still seems to be carrying republican anger and giving a sense of mission to voters who hadn't, you know, been that super charged about the mid-terms. >> so, elise, tell us what else? other than the kavanaugh effect, what else are you hearing in new hampshire, iowa, across the country? >> new hampshire was interesting because i didn't expect to hear -- we heard from some republican voters who, you know, they would entertain the option of a primary challenger to donald trump, and anyone who wants to hear directly from the voters themselves you can download the podcast. it's ashcroft in america and go to itunes and download it and listen and hear it directly from the voters because that's so

important. sometimes we're just, we're talking amongst ourselves and great to hear actually how voters are responding to these issues that are dominating and driving the news cycle. at this point, i'm in mississippi for the weekend. i saw your buddy roger wickr last night and talked about how the two of you started out in congress, joe, and i'll interview him later today. it was interesting to hear him talk to an audience at a baptist church in my home town about how he sees donald trump and the mid-term challenges and you just -- you know, you see how democrats are on one side, republicans are on one side. the democrat grassroots wants more liberal, more left wing options. they don't think moderation is successful. they are torn about that. republicans fear the coming blue wave and take over of the house

as more gridlock and just nothing is going to get done. it comes down to this frustration with government and stagnation and the fighting and no one is seeing real results right now because they seem to bicker. i do think there's an option potentially down the road for people who want to, you know, look towards potentially a third-party. >> one measure of enthusiasm is that early voting has preceded 2016 election in a presidential year. there's a lot of energy out there. michael steele, i want to play with you a bite from martha mcsally. she's running in arizona to fill jeff flake's seat. it gets to what republicans want to talk about and what they are asked about. >> will you fight to retain pre-existing conditions as they are today.

>> i have fought for pre-existing conditions. >> you voted for something that would weaken pre-kpifrting conditions. you voted for something that would weaken -- >> that's not true. it's not true. >> you guys are asking me about it in this top race in the country. it's ridiculous. can we talk about economic opportunity. >> do you know if any of your starve is getting health care through the aca. >> can we talk what matters to most people. instead of a press release from the democrat party. >> michael, it's not a press release, it's from the roll call of her vote in 2010 she voted to repeal the affordable care act which protects people with pre-existing conditions. >> she finds her several in the same boat like a lot of republicans trying to back stroke on this question of

pre-existing conditions, having voted 70 times to repeal obamacare which includes pre-existing conditions. and then, of course, cutting, passing ledgislation to cut the mandate which is why we're in this space now with premiums going up and the cost of health care becoming more of a prevalent part of the conversation which doubles down on this whole idea of pre-existing conditions. republicans find themselves trying rewrite history effectively and say no, i didn't do that. i always have been a strong advocate for pre-existing conditions. almost, willie, take pre-existing conditions out of the health care debate, set it aside as a separate interest as they voted exclusively to do just that. the truth is it was part of a bigger package of health care legislation to repeal obamacare. so this is their reality. what you saw there was mcsally

trying to do her best donald trump and not being very good at it. trying to shift the conversation to something else. she doesn't have the bright shining object that donald trump has to throw out there for the media to follow. they are standing there in their face with microphones asking them the tough questions. >> joe, this is not isolated to arizona. you have governors in florida and wisconsin whose states are participating in a lawsuit to get rid of the affordable care act, making ads talking about how they will take care of people with pre-existing conditions. >> these politicians, let's take rick scott, let's take other governors. again, they are suing, they are suing to get insurance companies off the hook so they don't have to deal with pre-existing conditions. suing to stop it. then rick scott goes on the air and says, i'm fighting to make insurance companies have to take care of pre-existing conditions.

it's just the opposite is the truth. you saw the arizona senatorial candidate there. you can talk about governors all across the state, all across the united states that voted to not take extra medicaid money and that's just wanting to not only hurts the poor in the states, but hurts senior citizens, and people that are in nursing homes and the chickens are coming home to roost. there's no doubt about that, jeremy bash. it's one thing if recognizes had to pay for the fact they attempted to gut health care so they can pay for the huge tax cuts that donald trump bragged that he passed for his rich buddies at mar-a-lago and for his family. but now you've got kids at home

that their dads and moms to come back from iraq and afghanistan and from overseas and they want to see them this holiday season and now you got donald trump making up a crisis for a caravan that may not even show up here, that if it does, it's a couple of months away, and you may have kids who aren't going to have their mom or dad walking around with them on halloween or sitting down at the table with them at thanksgiving because they will be staring across empty stretch of land looking over the border for donald trump and this imaginary crisis that he's gwyinning up for the election. talk about the tragedy for these american families. secondly, i got to ask would james mattis really do this? >> i think it's really concerning, joe. our military is stretched thin as you points out and it's really inappropriate to deploy active duty military troops to the border just a week and a

half before an election. first of all, active duty military troops are prevented from actually enforcing u.s. law on american soil. that's a long standing principle of our legal system. so what we've done in the past we put national guard troops under the authority of governors sometimes to help out in administrative roles at the border. previous presidents have done that. no previous presidents have scents active duty troops to the border in a show of militarization of the border to gin a fake crisis, to use our military in a political fashion a week and a half before an election. when you ask what will these troops be doing? they won't be doing anything, they will be playing administrative roles. there's some lawyers and doctors. we don't have to use our active duty troops in uniform who have tough jobs all over the world to do things, frankly, that other people can be doing. >> jeremy, while that's

happening, aren't we waiting to hear about an fbi investigation into a terrorist attack on our nation, a threat to two former presidents, a former vice president, a former cia director, former democratic government officials, maxine waters? what would the fbi be doing right now that we should know about and why is the department of homeland security secretary at the border right now? >> well not with standing all of the criticism that the fbi has come under from the president, not with standing his efforts to undermine law enforcement, nobody but the fbi, povertial inspectors, secret service, nobody but people who are duty bound and sworn law enforcement officials to protect us all. you're right. this is one of the most significant terrorist adakotas against our country's leadership. i use terrorism. terrorism is not designed to achieve a tactical objective to

cause mass casualties it's to instill fear. to silence critics. or to achieve a political objective. terrorism in essence is a political weapon. that's what's being used here against critics of the president. the president should speak out forcefully against it. >> unfortunately, the president and some of his lackeys are attacking the media who are targets of the bombs. arguments and accusations in politics come and go. donald trump -- and think about this. this guy alone is unique among presidents in his embrace of violence. look at his words. >> if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? seriously. okay. just knock the hell -- i promise

you i will pay for the legal fees. paranoia miss. the guards are very gentle with him. walking out with big high fives. like to punch him in the face. i tell you. get him out. try not to hurt him. if you do i'll defend you in court, don't worry about it. >> the audience hit back and that's what we need a little bit more of. any guy that can do a body slam he's my guy. i think that her body guards should drop all weapons. take their guns away. she doesn't want guns. let's see what happens to her. take their guns away. hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the second amendment. by the way if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks.

although the second amendment people, maybe there is. i don't know. >> so, elise, there's a president, of course in that clip suggesting that people can shoot and kill hillary clinton. it's clear as day. we also had from that greatest hits package the president praising a republican who assaulted and was arrested and charged with attacking a journalist for asking a question about him. this is a recurring theme this morning, health care. there is no other president, there is no other speaker of the house, there is no other national figure in our lifetime who incited violence like this. that's why when i hear newt gingrich and other people saying oh, gee this is understandable, it doesn't hold any water, does it? >> it is unfortunate how nasty

everything has become, and the political climate has been set from the top. it's been set by donald trump. and so media gets a lot of blame for reporting, but we're reporting on what donald trump is saying at the end of the day, and this is coming directly from donald trump. the constant misinformation, the outright lies. and now you look at donald trump trying to deflect from the tenor of the country and the rancor and saying it's somebody else's fault because it's always somebody else's fault because he's constantly the victim and has pushed victimhood culture in this country further than i ever thought would be imaginable in my lifetime. certainly by a party, you know, that used to be for, you know, individual freedom and personal responsibility and now donald trump everyone is just, you know, clinging to the victimhood

altar. it really is surprising how he is so successful at just constantly denying and denying the truth and the facts that are there in front of us. >> constant victimhood. the king of the snowflakes, donald trump is such -- he acts -- he acts gene robinson like all of his supporters are going to melt away. they are such victims. they control everything, by the way. they control the senate, they control the supreme court, they control the administration, they control the justice department, i can go on all morning. republicans control everything in washington. they are still victims. you get donald trump now claiming that he's a victim after all these pipe bombs are scents out to people he's attacking when we just showed that clip. if donald trump praising a republican beating the hell out of a member of the press for asking a question about, about

health care. you have donald trump actually telling somebody to beat the hell out of a protester. then you have donald trump actually saying hey listen, if you don't like the judges that hillary clinton appoints i suppose people in the second amendment can shoot and kill her. >> shoot and kill her. it's amazing. elise is right the political climate has been coarsened and that's taken a long time and you can look at newt gingrich, you can look at a lot of people. nothing like donald trump. we've never had anything like donald trump. donald trump is -- he is the phenomenon. he's what's taken us off the cliff with rhetoric of a kind that we have never heard or certainly not since the days when members of congress, you know, got caned on the house floor. we're talking pre-civil war times, when there was this level

of violence in the rhetoric. and that has consequences. it has obvious consequences. somebody is sending bombs to crypt critics of donald trump. it's ridiculous to say there's no relationship between that and these appalling words that we hear constantly from donald trump on twitter, at his rallies. every where. constantly. this is exceptional in the worse sense of the word, and we got repudiate it. it has to be repudiated and can be repudiated and hope it's repudiated on november 6th. >> gene, i was watching him as a man for a second, a big tough guy. he's the big tough guy. joe you grew up in pensacola, i grew up in jersey. isn't that the first guy to run

from a fight. we never take the elm per jmper clothes off. he's the big tough guy, this and that. you know, joe, you grew. that guy. you know that guy in the schoolyard was running in the other direction if somebody took a swing. don't hit me i'm going sue you. joe, did you know that guy? >> i actually knew quite a few of them. and he's a rich spoiled kid. rich spoiled country club kid that -- whose daddy gave him what, $200 million, willie and he's spent his entire life isolating himself in a tower and in that tower he has surrounded himself with yes men and yes women because daddy gave him $200 million he never had to

answer for any of his aberrant behavior and spent his life bullying people. he used to do it inside trump tower behind closed doors now he's doing it for all the world to see. >> he still carries the chip on his shoulder that he's not in the club somehow, not in the manhattan club. the "new york times" didn't love him. all these places he wanted to be. i think when he thought he achieved the white house, the holy grail he would get the respect he had been searching for for 70 years. now he continues to lash out and behaves the way he always has. >> all right. mika, what do we have next? >> willie will tell us. >> willie, tell us what we have next. i want to know. this may be the best episode of "morning joe" yet. what's coming up. >> we're only halfway through, still ahead, newt gingrich says potential subpoena of president trump's tax returns would prove whether the kavanaugh fight was

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for 800. >> former republican politician joe scarborough hosts "morning joe" on this network. >> what the abc >> no. >> what is msnbc. >> in an interview, newt gingrich said that a battle with congress over subpoenas would determine whether fighting to get justice brett kavanaugh on the supreme court was worth it to president trump who beginnne gingrich says the president is not concerned. >> i don't think he has any fear of the democrats ability to investigate. >> he's been raising that fear out there. >> yeah.

because he wants people to go vote. >> what about if they subpoena his tax returns. >> they will be trapped into going to the supreme court and see whether or not the kavanaugh fight was worth it. [ laughter ] >> wow. elise jordan, michael steele, let's sort of back into this conversation. i'll let you respond to newt gingrich. who wants to talk to me about the brett kavanaugh fight and whether or not it was beneficial to democrats in the long run. elise, i'll send it to you. >> mika, it's really -- this is a tough one, and we're seeing the aftermath of this fight play out. it's something that voters have absorbed that they watch that people were personally invested in. i do think that conventional

media narrative that this was going to help democrats more than it hurt them, i don't know if i necessarily agree with that because it really awakened something in republican voters who weren't as super charged as democrats who had been on the losing end and perhaps more incentivized to go out. it gave them an issue that super charged them. and with democrats i was a bit surprised by the nuanced opinions that i heard from so many democrats about how the dr. ford testimony and justice kavanaugh's testimony impacted them. and it's not as black and white as we so often hear, this side is totally right, this side is totally wrong. voters really looked at it as a human issue with all of the nuance that they should, and gave it -- treated it with the

complexity instead of it boiling it down into, well he was accused, he should automatically dropout, or -- it was a very -- it's very telling that the american public, i think, was almost smarter on this issue and more empathetic than the media fervor was. >> the media or democrats. michael steele, i'll send to it you on this. i think that it was a big win for republicans on a number of levels. number one they got him through. but no matter what we felt and believed, i think deep inside the soul of america, of all americans is that we're a nation that believes in due process and i don't think everybody was completely comfortable with what went down and a lot of it went down on the side of the democrats. it's what they brought to the table in this fight.

>> yeah. i think that's right. and to elise's point, it may have been very personal, sort of a decision in process for voters out there. but it was a very political one for the republican party and it has been for quite some time. this is one of the things that has stuck in the craw of grassroot activists for almost a generation, the promise that the supreme court would be taken seriously in the fight during election times. and for the last two cycles as we've noticed the parties emphasize the reason to go to the polls is for the supreme court. and it was materialized in this fight in this past election and the democrats slept at the switch. they were talking about other issues and republicans were out there saying to the base, the supreme court is the battle line. it is the front line for the future wars to come.

so when you listen to what newt gingrich said, it's very interesting, is he confirming the suspicion that the kavanaugh appointment was there to backstop whatever may come in the future that could potentially harm this president? so now we'll see to use his words whether or not the kavanaugh vote was worth it. and that's what this was for a lot of grassroots activists across the country. >> and jeremy bash final thoughts from you and linking back to what we heard from newt gingrich, it appears kavanaugh is there, potentially, to cover the president, if needed. >> not just about tax returns, also going to be about every aspect of oversight. every aspect of the guardrails on this presidency including the mueller investigation and of course under our madisonian system of checks and balances not just congress that checks the president it's the courts, the judiciary. the idea that brett kavanaugh or any judge is there to give the

president a pass or to evade their responsibility of oversight is a breakdown in our constitutional system. >> mika, clearly it was a win for republicans. we saw that in the polls. but, i'm talking about as far as galvanizing their base. i do believe a lot of women and we'll this in the polls, right afterwards felt defeated. but i think there's an anger in there. they will come out and speak. yes, they got the supreme court justice. as far as the politics of it which for the first few weeks which seem to favor the republicans, i do think women, the suburban women are waiting. they were very emotionally affected by what happened. i think you'll see that in the votes. politically, they got their appointee but it will swing back to the democrats come election day. >> coming up should the u.s. government rein in tech companies while china is doing the opposite? we'll take a look at beijing's push for artifacts fishal

intelligence and ai cold war could doom us all. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪

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michael steele, tell bus the initiative, the organization you chair, u.s. vote foundation. it's just to put out the message to young people to get them to vote, but this is an impossible task. they don't vote. >> they don't. they don't. i appreciate you and joe and others pushing this issue. so, we want to take it to the next step. let's go right to the sweet spot

for these young voters out therer and make them the best deal they could possibly, possibly take. we have a great effort called the big deal 2018 effort. take a look at this. ♪ >> hey sweetie, it's your aunts gleaned glenda. i love following you on the social media. that boy looks just like your father. but i have a small favor to ask you and i promise to make it up to. the mid-term elections are november 6th and i want to you cast your ballot. now before you say oh, voting, here's my offer. if you post a picture proving you voted, i will never comment on your posts ever again. ever. that photo would be a lot cuter with kids in it, tick tock. called the big deal 2018 and it's totally legally-binding.

>> actually from a legal standpoint -- >> shhh. all you have to do is vote in the most important election of your life. post a selfie with your i voted sticker or mail in your ballot. tag it with the #big deal and not another word from me. why is it so smokey in that room. young voters like you can decide these mid-terms. all you have to do is show up. go vote. bring your friends. and if you don't these puppies are just warming up. kisses. what a sunset. so proud of you. >> and that's the goal. that's the deal. all you got to do, cut the deal with your favorite aunt or uncle, your mom or dad, that family member that loves to spend time on your instagram that you will go vote and all

you have to do is post a picture of yourself voting, wear the i voted sticker and that's the contract. they won't post on your instagram or social media again. >> i got to do that for my daughters because they hate it when i comment on their posts. this is amazing. we enjoy being a part of it. good job. president trump tweets from an iphone he only uses government phones. amid reports his conversations are being routinely spied upon by russia and china. we'll have more on that. "morning joe" is coming right back.

multiple u.s. officials tell nbc news they have been concerned for months that president trump has been discussing sensitive information during his many nonsecure cell phone calls with outside friends and advisors.

that follow as "new york times" report stating the chinese and russian spies are routinely able to listen in on president trump's cell phone calls since none of them are totally secure and can be easily exploited. also reporting the president uses one of three aphones one of which is no different than those available to the public. nbc news has not confirmed that aspect of the report. yesterday the president tweeted, from an iphone that the "times" report was long and boring and so incorrect i do not have time here to correct it. i only use government phones and have only one seldom used government cell phone. the story is so wrong. in a followup tweet the president added i rarely use a cell phone, i like hard lines. china also is in the midst of ambitious steps towards artificial intelligence as the u.s. government juggles to find a balance between regulation and innovation. joining us now president and founder of the eurasia group and chief of "wire" magazine.

they co-authored a piece in next month's "wire" magazine. it's titled "the ai cold war that could doom us cold wore that could doom us all." gentleman, good morning. a little dark line there, the ai cold war that could doom us all. what's the tension here? we were talking about the elon musk position that ai could eat us all and human civilization and the sort of mark zuckerberg position, that it's an important aspect of inno evaporation. what's the debate here? >> i think the first insight and the notion is that technology doesn't help democracy. it can help aauthoritarianism. it's a long time from what people believed for a long time. start with that as a premise. >> explain that, how? >> you thought 20 years ago, technology would open up the world, pep hemocommunicate. >> orange ref liegss, ar --

revolution, arab springs. >> tell ne dark side. >> it turns out its as good technology for people finding you. >> what is artificial intelligence? >> it's the capacity for computers to think for themselves. so instead of computers, humans programing in code, the humans put in data. they analyze the data sense and come up with their own rules and artificial intelligence is becoming the core of the way all computer systems are going to work, is going to have profound effects. and it's going to change the way our whole work force works and every job happens. what happens in the second side of the piece is china is getting out way ahead of it. >> you are trump, are you in charge of artificial intelligence, are you an autocrat. how does that help him? >> the real issue is autocrats are using this effectively right now f. you are china,wigergers.

you -- wiggers. it's so much easier to have a credible capacity to repress. the ability of an individual to demonstrate and cause challenges for the government is vastly undermined by the strong ai-driven under surveillance and big data sorting capabilities of the chinese government, while we are focusing on, let's get more jobs for coal miner was, a solid 20th century industry. the chinese are considering the most important strategic industry they have is ai. not only are they promoting national monopolies in that space, they're putting enormous money into it while here in the united states with real problems that we have with companies like facebook and google. we're talking and how we're going to regulate them much more sharply. how we're going to make life much more challenging for them. we're not talking about the strategic policy that we have towards ensuring that the

chinese don't win on this. >> so how do we balance the benefits of ai? it's in our phone. people don't realize they use every day with those risks the government controls the pipes? >> that is the question. that's what the u.s. government should be thinking about. we should have national commission, senate hearings, government opening up data sets. we should have a government taking ai as seriously as china's government is. and that's what we're not doing. that is the central message of the piece. it's ha the u.s. deposit needs to say, this is one of the greatest technologies we've ever invented. it can do great things for our economy and the military. >> we invented it. >> we invented it. it has all kind of risks. we need to be pay sock much attention to this and figure out all kind of government policies. >> that is what we are not doing. >> unlike untrade, where we don't expect a trade war between the americans and the chinese, because we need each other. our supply chains are interlinked. we are manufacturing that,

making forecast off it. in this case the artificial intelligence the chinese are developing a separate system to that of the united states. the consequence, this is becoming a cold war. they win. we lose. if that cold war evolves into an ai arms race like the nuclear race we had with the soviets, this is going to become the principle threat to national security. >> gene robinson has a question. go ahead. >> reporter: you guys convinced me this is a toll in the hand of despots. how do we control it? negotiating a treaty, is there like anti-ai that we can deploy? is there something that our tech companies ought to be doing to control technology flow? where you said china is developing its own. what can be done about this? >> i would say there are two things the first is that you want to have not just american private sector companies, but

you need to have the government actually investing in core sciences and related technologies that are going to create a base that allow the americans to assure we have continued talent and advantage. in the '70s and ''80s, you had cones like raytheon and northrup considered to be the strategy companies. otherwise, we were as a resultnerable to the soviets. you sort of need that equivalent in the united states right now. you also need a conversation that says ai shouldn't be the arms race. there need to be areas that we want to try to cooperate with the chinese and with allies and other countries all around the world. there are certain areas we lean to lean in and build as strangely as we can as america. >> let's crystallize this for american. you talk about a cold war, consequences, what bad thing could happen? >> the bad thing is have been china gain much more strategic

power, have much more influence and have companies decide, oh, i will side with china and not the u.s. what we want, we want strong u.s. policy and china to be more integrated. we don't want to turn our backs on ai, we want to embrace it and i want great much better with china. >> thank you guys. a fascinating piece in the november issue of "wired" magazine. it is out right now. check it out for yourselves. mika. >> coming up, we know what's keeping the president up at night. not concerns over who is sending pipe bombs in the mal, but, rather, how the media is covering the story. whether or not it's to his liking. we will show you what his middle of the night looked like in the form of a tweet. plus the president seems to mike i make a crisis about the mike grant caravan, perhaps to have the republicans win the mid-terms the question now is whether they will actually send troops to the border.

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about like the caravan? >> wow. wow. you see, she doesn't think that the health care matters. to most americans, she's running for governor or for senator in arizona, she doesn't think that matters to people in arizona, in fact, you know, republicans have been lying. we have been talking about it all this week. this isn't even political opinion. it's an objective fact. republicans have been trying to kill pre-existing conditions for several years. they have been voting against obamacare what, 50, 60 times in the house? now they don't want to answer the questions. they're flip-flopping. they're lying. they're going back to this caravan thing. >> begging to talk about it. so let's do it. >> let's talk about a caravan. i'm sorry to go a little to the side. i can talk about boston, red sox baseball, probably god knows i will soon. this caravan that donald trump

keeps talking about that fox news keeps talking about the people on the right keep talking about as some last ditch desperate, sad, pathetic effort to again use white people, non-white people to scare white people into voting for republicans. it's over a thousand miles away. it's not going to be here for at least a month, maybe if they go to tijuana farther out, it may not 'here for months. but mid-terms are 12 days away, and deploying federal troops instead of activating a guard tells me a lot. that's a great perception. you know, willie, james mattis, the secretary of defense is so concerned about this caravan that we are sending troops to the -- let me repeat that again. >> yeah. >> we are sending troops to the border because of this urgent

national emergency. i only hope, though, womanly, they go there stocked with two things. one, halloween candy and, two, thanksgiving turkeys. because halloween and thanksgiving and the beginning of december, the start of christmas season, will all begin before the migrants even come close to the border, if they even get -- you know, in april when we heard this was happening, oh my god, it's horrible. an invasion. they ended up arresting 12 people that tried to cross a little bit. did you see yesterday, with him, pipe while pipe bombs were sent, the head of homeland security wasn't concerned about public officials getting pipe bombs. she instead went down -- >> oh my god! >> -- it was a top gun moment.

>> it looks so cool. >> to talk about the urgency of this mike grant crisis, which again i remind you, it's not coming for months, if it comes at all. >> but, joe, it gets worse from there. not only are we talking about the caravan, not we, the president talking about the caravan like it's some imminent crisis. he's not talking in the white house about shutting down the board tore mi board to migrants. whether he will do that, i don't know. he is saying to voters, this is how bad it is, this is how serious i'm taking it. i'm sending troops to the border. i'm considering shutting it down. i think this is a ploy and on november 7th, joe, i think the issue of the caravan will mysteriously evaporate from the president's mind and the papers. >> and from fox news, they're

doing it around the clock. you look at the tweets of people, michael steele, that we both know and we both like and bothulesed to respect and they're tweeting about the imminent invasion, showing mobs of oh, quick, hold on, mobs of the what? oh, mobs of non-white people, the others. the others are coming to get us. it's so -- we got to send troops to the border. we got to close the border. jesus, how, wow, wait, what? they're over 1,000 miles away, they, what, wait? >> there are some babies. >> they may not be here until december. wait, homtld, what? only 12, only 12 tried to cross the border last time when this was -- well, wait, michael, it's almost as if these republicans don't want to talk about health care. >> right. >> because they're lying about it. they don't want to -- they want

to distract people from donald trump's hatred red rick. -- rhetoric. we saw in that sad, pathetic chamberlin of somebody saying arizona voters don't care about health care, they don't care about pre-existing conditions, they only care about a caravan that ain't coming for a couple months. it's over a couple months away. we have to go down in our "top gun" glass at the border. >> they look school, stylish. >> yeah. >> what i no i from that graphic just now is that the top two things that has the most direct impact on the american people at 23% are health care and the president. immigration number 7. but it's the hype machine. this is the gin up the base machine to kavanaugh to wrap around and complete the effort to get the base to come out to

sustain that energy, that, you know, i'm ready to go and vote for the president. remember, the president is putting himself on the ballots and yet in the same breath, we'll say, well, if this doesn't work, it's not my fault. well, you can't have it both ways. this is either about you or it isn't. if you are telling us it's about you by telling your candidates, them your voters to vote for me as well, then, yeah, all this is about you and all of this is on you. and you're right, joe, on november 7th, the idea of this massive influx of immigrants -- oh, don't forget the pesky little middle easterners who happen to be tucked neatly within that group of migrants. >> yeah. >> coming across the border. all of that becomes, what? no, we didn't say it was going to happen right now. we just wanted to let people know it could happen or they'll be here soon. and, you know, the work will be

done. >> it's coming. it's coming. and all before the election. i mean, seriously, talking about accepting troops to the border. >> yeah. >> when you got a couple months lead time and sending out the head of dhs secretary to the border when you actually have pipe bombs being sent to two former presidents a former secretary of state a former cia. >> the head of homeland security. >> the head of homeland security. how sad, how pathetic. how predictable. i just got to say, let's read about public officials saying, you know, i just want to talk to you my friends at home. you all are my friends. i know you know that. i feel a special closeness to you. i want to protect you today, if for some reason one of your friends or relatives sends you something on facebook or twitter or an e-mail, we. you to send it along to somebody talking about the imminent invasion, please, please, don't

do it. just step away from your laptop. step away from the kitchen blender and any other kitchen appliances that may do you or your extremities any harm and just walk outside and take a deep breath. look up at the sun and thank jesus that he actually gave us a brain, where we can actually use our own minds. because they are lying to you. because they don't want you to know that they've cut tons and tons and tons of taxes for donald trump's richest friends and they're breaking about it. donald trump is breaking about it to his friends at mar-a-lago and made you really rich. they're taking away your health care. democrats can't do this. they can't say this. apparently they're too dumb to say this in a national campaign ad. so let me help them. they're doing this caravan nonsense because they've cut taxes for the richest people on

the planet. the rich -- not the 1% the 00 .1%. donald trump after he did it flew down to mar-a-lago on his big old jet and he sat around the table with billionaire friend and said, i just made you all a lot of money today. and then guess what? then they went after your health care. and mitch mcconnell said, they're coming after your social security and your medicare, to pay for the tax cuts for the rich. now, that's what's happening in your life. >> yeah. >> whether you were in georgia or central florida or whether you are in iowa, wherever you are. that's what's happening in your life. and they don't want you to know that. so guess what they're doing? they're talking about brown people that are coming and they're going to take over your towns. because they think you are stupid. >> yeah.

>> i know you're not. i know you're smart enough to protect your children. i know are you smart enough to protect your mother. i'm sure a lot of you, like me, you have a mom that has challenges or a dad that may have dementia, that depends on medicaid to take care of them. you need health care to caketak care of young children. they have been trying to take it away from you, and they they're doing it because they cut taxes for the richest multi-national corporations. and donald trump's richest friend and for donald trump's own family. now, you don't have to believe me. if you don't have a google machine in your living room, go next door. >> yeah. >> ask them if you can borrow their google machine and look it up. and by the way, since your

neighbors might tell you all this fake news, why don't you look up the information -- like from government websites and see what's happening. check out that national debt while the you're at it. because they're stealing money from your children and grandchildren as well. to do what donald trump said, give tax cuts to all of his richest friends at mar-a-lago and his family. now, i know you're not dumb and if i can get a praise jesus are you smart enough to look into this on your own, i'm so grateful and thankful this friday morning that will you do that. mika, we will not be distracted from the truth out there that brown people are not coming to invade america. >> that this is all about republicans that don't want to talk about the fact that they've gutted people's health care. and that they don't have to face

that truth. so it's all about distraction you know how i say james carville says look at the bird over there? >> yeah. >> that's exactly what's happening. except now it's republicans doing it instead of democrats. >> it's all about distraction and it has a racist twist to it that it's quite tragic. with secretary nielsen along the border there, standing there, leading apparently fox news, their broadcast with a reporter standing on the border as well. i know shepp won't do that, so you watch fox. you might want to watch shepp smith show. he will lead with the news and not play this game with the presidency. but some people might want to alert secretary nielsen to the terrorist attack on our democracy that transpired over the last 48 hours. some might want to alert the head of the department of homeland security about the attack on our homeland. someone may let her know she can take off her raybans and head back to washington and maybe do

something more productive than push more lice and mislead the american people. still ahead on "morning joe," americans would likely appreciate a president who is an early riser, but anti-media tweets said 2:48 in the morning. that's really early. that's really concerning. we'll talk about it just ahead on "morning joe." you're headed down the highway when the guy in front slams on his brakes out of nowhere. you do, too, but not in time. hey, no big deal. you've got a good record and liberty mutual won't hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. you hear that, karen? liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges... how mature of them. for drivers with accident forgiveness liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty ♪

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let's get to what we know in the nationwide man hunt in connection to those pipe bombs sent to leading democrats and critics of the president's including two former presidents. senior law enforcement officials tell nbc news that investigators are now looking into whether some of those packages passed in the same mail facility in florida, possibly addressed to barack obama, hillary clinton, john brennan, eric holder and

maxine waters. officials are now deeming with ten vat packages that are -- dealing with ten separate packages that are all similar. one to joe biden was intercepted at a mail facility in wilmington, delaware. early saturday morning a similar package was discovered at robert deniro's office in manhattan. all of the devices are being examined by the fbi in quantico, virginia. they say some of the devices were poorly made and had no possibility of exploding. we are told it is unclear if the flaws are intention am to make a convincing hoax or a bad design or construction. >> joyce, this is very personal to you. your father-in-law was a federal judge who was killed by a pipe bomb. talk about this sort of investigation, how do authorities approach this sort

of investigation and talk about the real risks, how it changed your family's life, these sort of attacks? >> you know, bombers are a unique kind of criminal. they try to inspire fear, but they're cowards. they're not willing to engage or put themselves at risk. they act from afar. so investigators start off using that psychological profile. typically, they're looking just for a single bomber. someone who will maybe even have no prior criminal history. this is an unusual and a very interesting situation because it appears that it's possible that there could be more than one person working on the bombings. we have mailings. we have liveries. so investigators will look not just at the devices for their physical characteristics, they'll also be trying to side what the profile of the person or people involved will be in this situation and, most importantly, identify them, bring them to justice so that they provide no further threat

to people. once that threat is minimized, once they have people in custody, then they can work further on, on investigating why and how and how much. >> clint watts, let's just talk about the gravity of this incident and because of the list of the targets, have you two former president, president obama's former first lady and a former secretary of state in hillary clinton a former attorney general, a former cia director a sitting congress woman, robert deniro, george soros. as you look at the pro time of these people, obviously you know and the fbi doesn't know which people did this, but you look at that list, obviously, you can make a characterization of what kind of person the target was. they have all been prominent critics of president trump. where will the fbi be looking this morning, exactly? >> i think one thing the fbi would do is keep all options opened. if you go back historically and look where mistakes were made in investigations like this, it was

junk down one theory too quickly. think of the d.c. snipers the white box that wasn't and the anthrax plot which was thought to be related to terrorism, it turned out wasn't. they will keep all possibilities opened at this point. i think joyce made an excellent point the way this is played out is it may not be one bomber. you are talking some delivery, some via mail. you seen them go to that mailing facility in florida now. secretary nielsen said, we are pretty convinced some of these came within florida. at the same point one of the first stories i saw said the one at george soros' housing is actually a livery. this could be a team. they could be loosely organized or affiliated. you could have different bomb types. i imagine the fbi is trying to stay wide in this investigation the one sort of silver lining of it's not good news, it's a bad situation but an opportunity is the bombs are not detonated.

which means have you lots of human forensics. you have lots of evidence to go off of. there is lots of visual clues. i looked at one of the packages, john brennan, for example, they sent it to the wrong location. he actually is a contributor here with nbc news and msnbc news and not cnn. each of those little clues is a forensic thing, whether it's psycho linguistics or human that you can look for. i imagine this is moving very rapidly. one thing our politics has done over many years is made people they can get away with this or it's not a big deal. this is a big deal. these are federal officials. these are people being watched. accepting it through the mail will get picked off by the secret service. they're great at their job. i imagine we will see more advancements through the weekend. meanwhile, president trump continues to take digs at the

media. at 2:48 this morning the president tweeted, funny how lowly rated cnn and others can criticize the post was then quickly delete. but he then completed his thoughts 30 minutes later, tweeting -- >> wait this is at 2:30 in the morning? >> this is someone's up at night. >> poor god. oh my goodness. >> what is this about? maybe someone had his phone. this would be weird behavior. this would be someone that doesn't sleep and watches tv. can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of bombs and ridiculously comparing this to the september 11th and oklahoma city bombing. yet when i criticize them, they go wide and scream. it's not presidential. i think what's not presidential is mocking your staff when they plead you to beg for unity. i think what's not presidential is when pipe bombs are sen to the former presidents and

democratic officials and a former cia director that you don't bring them to the white house and stand together and calm for unity. >> or you know at least -- >> i think democrats and republicans all to come to the white house and collectively demand a stop to the violence and collectively show unity. >> that i will say very calmly and i'm not screaming, that is terribly unpresidential. terribly unamerican and terribly sad for this country. coming up on "morning joe," some leading republicans are weighing in on the president's attacks against the free press. to paraphrase, newt gingrich the media has earned it. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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yesterday, several prominent republicans actually backed up the president's sad response to the mail bombs by criticizing news organizations. get this. the news organizations that had bombs mailed to them, who donald trump had been attacking -- >> calling the enemy of the

people. >> -- and calling the enemy of the people and the president warned time and time again that that sort of rhetoric would lead to violence. well, these republicans, i just, it's hard to each -- >> it's hard to fathom. >> -- to think i was a member of this party as sad and pathetic as they are right now. but republicans actually, instead of offering condolences to the news organizations and the human beings, the sons, the daughters, the moms the dads that twohat work there, they actually mocked and rid cumed them and attacked them. here's rnc rona mcdaniels, senator ted cruz and newt gingrich the husband of the ambassador of the holy city attacking reporters. >> we have seen the media be unprecedented in their negative coverage of this president. the president is right in saying

let's have civility in our news coverage. let's have fair minded news coverage in this country. not have the bias so strong on other networks, especially. >> look, it's the media's doing what the media does does, which is any narrative that they can twist against trump, they will do so. >> let's start with the enemy of the people. >> i don't think it helps any. except that i think they earned it. watch, cnn, look if you are overseas and you watch cnn international, you know the russians don't have to run propaganda television. there is no anti-rhetoric. i used to work for cnn, the culture of that building is so relentlessly hostile that what are you going to call them? >> a, you're going to call them reporters and journalists who pissed off hillary clinton's campaign. >> yeah. >> for two years. >> i am guilty. >> hillary clinton and her

campaign will still tell you today that they think that cnn and the "new york times" and the washington post and "morning joe" and other news outlets that were relentless in asking questions about the clinton foundation and about her e-mail server, they will, to this day, blame the news media for her loss. i mean, that's what happens. but, donny, when it happens, whether it's hillary clinton who hates the press or the obamas who i personally think have had a free pass a lot of times from the press. they always thought the press was overly hostile towards them. god, ronald reagan was inviscerated by the press. george h.w. bush. george w. bush eviscerated. george w. bush was absolutely raktd over the -- hell, even

newt gingrich when he was speaker of the house was raked over the coals, never called enemy of the people. never sent out videos that character chair katu caricatures of them beating up people, rallies, never did any of the things that donald trump is doing that is dangerous and will lead to violence and will lead to these sort of threats. >> joe, we could stay on the air for 24 hours and talk about the atrocities, the attacks on our democracy, starting where you started the show that with these poor families coming to this country st. the same way my grandparents, came from hungary. we can all tell stories of our ancestors. that's who we are. our boarders are open. we take people in this caravan is one out of a thousand edition of people this year. we shouldn't say that's who they are.

we could look at our president and say bombs are being sent to people, it's not the rhetoric i'm putting out there. it's not an insane act of terrorists. it's the news feel doing it. now it is on us, joe. we can't give anybody any more information. if you have not been living in this country for the fast 24 months, there is no way to shape the argument other than us now looking in the mirror who we are. coming up on "morning joe," historian michael beschloss is coming up. "morning joe" is coming right back. come with us to a new world

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all right. we have breaking news, a potentially another suspicious device has been discovered. let's go straight to nbc news' pete williams with more on this.

pete. >> reporter: well, we are told by several law enforcement agencies now an 11th device has been found. an 11th package. this one discovered at a mail processing center in florida, royal palm beach in the area that would feed mail into that mail distribution center that they have been looking at in opa locka. this was addressed to senator corey booker at an address in camden, new jersey. obviously, it was not delivered. what we don't know at this point is, was this just recently mailed and discovered at this mail center or this process -- at this post office in royal peach outgoing or had it been sent to senator booker and was somehow returned back and was discovered on its way back down? because of the phony debbie wasserman schultz' address. i don't know the answer to that.

as i think about this, it doesn't seem likely that it would be coming back. only because the postal service has been so aggressively looking for these packages in their system. for example, they had a sense that the one that joe biden was out there somewhere before they actually found it. because they thought they had seen it at some point. so, if it's just going into the mail system now, that would indicate that the bomber had only recently mailed this. we don't know the answer to that. it could be it's work, its way back or was just discovered or what. it appears there is an 11th package, this one addressed to corey booker in new jersey, obviously, never discovered, the authorities are working to recover it. get it sent back up here, along with all the others to look at. >> okay. >> it's been 24 hours since one has been discovered. now we're up to 11.

>> so as we look at this, pete, talk a little, if you could, and share with us the only in we have so far about the viability of these bombs and whether or not we know if this was an intent to scare, to incite fear, but actually not have them go off or are they potentially incendiary devices that could explode? >> well, the intent is going to be impossible to answer here. it does appear that some of them. i can't say that about all of them, some of them appear to have been constructed in a way that they wouldn't work. but whether that is intentional to just look really scary but not work or whether that was simply flawed design, a bad design or bad execution of a good design, one or the other, they just don't know. it does appear some of them wouldn't have worked and, clearly, fortunately, none of them have gone off. >> pete, it's willie geist here in new york. we heard florida mentioned now

in the last 24 hours quite a bit as perhaps the source of some of these packages, now, you are talking about a mail processing center in royal palm beach florida. have law enforcement officials told you they have identified florida as a source of all or some of these packages? >> reporter: well, not only law enforcement officials but kirstjen neilsen the homeland security said last night that they know some of the packages were mailed from florida. so we have been told that by law enforcement officials for, on a background basis, now she has been saying it publicly, too. it seems pretty clear some were mailed from florida. it does seem possible that all of them were mailed from florida. but i don't know that they've concluded that yet. but they do say that all of them were mailed. you may remember early on the ones to george soros were delivered. if they were delivered. that's because the mail was sent

to them and received at an off site and hand delivered to the final destination. it appears all of these devices were at least put into the mail system. all right, nbc news' pete pumps, thank you owe /* williams, thank you -- >> all right, nbc news' news' pete williams. thank you. we can try to future all of this into context. joe. >> i don't know we can, michael. why don't we look at the past couple days. i'm curious what insights you may have about it. you write a book ability presidents at war. in this case, it appears to be a president who is at war with the free press and republican party that seems to be justifying his incitement to violence at campaign rallies over the past two years. >> yeah. totally agree with you. and joe and mika and willie, has president trump said anything in

the last 48 hours that would make you feel safe amid this wave of attempted assassination violence? have you heard one word? >> yeah, no, absolutely not. >> not much. you can -- i was going to stay you contrast it with other presidents, any president of our lifetime, except for donald trump, we know what he would have done. he would have made a statement saying you know whoever is trying this will not get away with it. full resources of the federal government are going to be hurled by me against this, would have called up the clintons, would have called up the obamas, would have called up other targets of whoever is doing this saying we will give you whatever help you need to make you feel safer. instead you get this statement from donald trump that doesn't even mention any of their names. the next morning, yesterday morning, gives out this tweet essentially almost implying that cnn brought this on themselves. you know the man who said the

press was the enemy of the people. we have to keep on pointing out where donald trump, how he is behaving. how that is in contrast with the way that any normal president would behave in a time like this they would have had empathy. >> yeah, i'm trying to remember, michael, let's expand it beyond presidents. let's talk about speakers of the house. >> yeah. >> let's talk about, my god, majority leaders. let's talk about, you know, people have talked about steve scalise getting shot. i remember everybody coming together then when that happened. nobody turning it around. right. everybody came together, donald trump is the exception to every rule and in this case, you know, i don't want to sound the alarm too much like mika does. but in this case, you actually have a political party and the leaders of a political party that are lining up behind a president who is inciting americans to violence with his rhetoric at campaign rallies and when the press is attacked, they

remain mute. >> we have never seen this before. and you know, going back to the founders, what they wanted was, members of congress, even if a president's own party allied with the president would challenge him. they always said, that's the way you get the best leadership. in england, we were trying to be different from. >> that monarchy, nobody criticized the king, everybody wanted people to criticize the pvt.. >> that itself the way democracy is. have you ever seen a time more than the last 18 months where members of the president's own party, especially leadership in the house and senate were behaving so much like lap dogs at times? >> no never. donny deutsche. >> michael, if you were going to span all of our history, there has been nothing like trump. can you find any president that in anyway had the same kind of gasoline effect? obviously, we look for our leaders to be uniters?

wait a second, it's my mom. sorry, mom, i'm on tv. >> she's calling to say what you are saying is right, donny. >> yeah, can you find the closest exam of a president who acted about as unprecidential as can you in a time of external strife? what's our distant second? >> well, maybe a recent second and so distant i almost hate to mention it was richard nixon in 1970. that was a time of the vietnam war. when he was campaign income mid-terms, in october of 1970, he thought he would try to pit himself against anti-war demonstrators and, in fact, just about this time of october, there was a rally in san jose, there were people shouting at him, he got up on the hood of his limousine, you know, waved his arms with a peace sign and taunted them and rocks began to fly. in additionen thought that that would make him win the mid-terms for the republicans and on election eve, the republicans erred, not very good video --

aired a not very good videotape in phoenix, denouncing those who were not in favor of law and order and denouncing mobs, i don't know where he got that word. but that was a very, you know, sort of weak predecessor to the kind of behavior we're seeing from donald trump now. >> michael steele. >> talk about the president. you are a presidential scholar. >> thank you. >> you got all of that with the presidency. but then there's the rest of the cast of characters. the house of the representatives. the united states senate. and we had members out this week basically saying, well, you fwhoef, at lea know, saying, at least the bombs didn't go off. if this is the standard. >> unbelievable. >> how does that play into this narrative. you had a howard baker and

republicans who stepped into this moments to tell this president, okay. that's it. do you see that as a part of the enabling of this president aside from his own personality or cultive personality? >> yeah, i sure do, michael. i think the only thing that is going to change this, is if people think that this does not warning and if in the election 11 days there is a vote against 2kru6. you know, there is nothing like election returns to make people feel differently. if republican leaders and others in the house and senate are going along with donald trump because they're afraid of their voters, well, if the voters in november make it clear they don't like this kind of behavior, maybe don't like other things about donald trump, it will be amazing what we will hear after election day. you notice, they're going to start distancing themselves from him fast. if you want to see that, you know, election day is 11 days ahead. >> michael beschloss, thank you very much.

thanks for being on. we're following breaking news. >> my pleasure. i wish it were a happier morning. >> i know. >> me too. we're following now an 11th explosive device discovered in cory booker and w nbc is reporting the nypd is investigating a suspicious package near a postal facility in midtown manhattan. we'll be back in a moment. we saved hundreds on our car insurance when we switched to geico. this is how it made me feel. it was like that feeling when you're mowing the lawn on a sunny day... ...and without even trying, you end up with one last strip that's exactly the width of your mower. when you're done, it looks so good you post a picture on social media. and it gets 127 likes. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. you can do it. we can do this.

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we're following breaking news in this spate of mail bombings, an 11th explosive device discovered in florida. this time, addressed to senator cory booker. and the nypd just tweeted, we are responding to a report of a suspicious package in the vicinity of west 52nd street and 8th avenue manhattan, please avoid the area and expect a police presence and heavy traffic. more information to follow. pete williams back with us. what do we know? >> well, we believe now this is the 12th device. what we're told is this is a package that looks like all the others. the other 11 now. so we can make it 12. this one is addressed to james clapper. the former director of national intelligence. so this would be the second person from the intelligence community who had been an addressee on these packaging. the first one, you may recall, is john brennan, the former cia

director. the good news is they're finding these in postal facilities instead of them having go further down the chain and be delivered. the first one, the one to clapper or rather the one addressed to booker that was found this morning we think was found at that mail distribution center in oppalacha. we thought maybe it was royal palm beach but royal palm beach is also the name of the mail distribution center in oppalacha so it appears the search there did yield some discoveries. and now this second package, which would be number 12, found at this mail sorting facility at midtown. so the postal service has told all of its workers to be on the lookout for these packages. that is now how they're finding them instead of having them delivered as they were to cnn or

to robert de niro's office or to some of the other places where they managed to actually get near the final point of delivery, they're now disrupting them or finding them in the mail chain. so that's -- that's the good news here. and, you know, we continue to spread along the caution they don't know how many are potentially out there. they were saying last night they thought that was it. now we know there are more. >> so pete, the final number at this point is 12. and we don't know if this is over. what we're into, now, the third day of this -- >> well, actually, the fifth day. because the first device, remember, was found at the home of george sorros on monday. then tuesday night, the one found, headed for the clinton's house in new york, then wednesday morning, the one found here for the obamas, and then we were off to the races with all

the others so this has been going on for five days now. >> so pete, are investigators beginning to believe this may be more than one person? obviously if you're having multiple locations, devices, delivered to george sorros home in westchester county, divided being shipped out of oppalach, florida, sounds like it might be multiple suspects. >> can we deduce this is more than one suspect? >> no, i don't think so. they think all these packages were delivered through the mail. it may turn out they were hand delivered to sorros but that's apparently because his mail is sent to an offsite facility and delivered by courier. that's apparently what happened at cnn as well. a courier delivered the mail to the headquarters but apparently it was mailed to an offsite facility so this could be the work of one person. >> all right. pete williams, thanks so much for being with us. michael steele, it continues, as

pete williams said. we're now into our fifth day. more targets out there. of course, we have no answers. just a very unsettled country. >> it is a very unsettled country. and this particular individual is keying in on targets of the president, to use that term, because i think it's appropriate here. and so there is a bigger narrative here that we have yet to really get into once this is concluded. and that's the unfortunate part of this. it's going to be the tough part of this conversation. is where the responsibility ultimately lies and where's the leadership to redirect this? again, i go back to the house and senate. folks have got to step up and make it clear this is not the america we want to be. >> yes, regardless of who is sending the packages. >> that's right. >> regardless of what their political motivations are. we don't know. we have no idea, mika, the

police don't know whether it's one person or whether it's multiple people right now. fbi. it's obviously what they're investigating. so we can't make any assumpti assumptions, any broad assumptions. the one thing we can do, mika, is we can say this is a time for the president of the united states to bring together republicans and democrats and speak in one voice that we are one nation and there's no room for this sort of hatred. >> as we close the show, we are covering breaking news from florida to manhattan. an 11th and a 12th device discovered this morning. one found in a florida postal facility addressed to senator cory booker and the other in manhattan addressed to former dni chief james clapper. that's the 11th and the 12th. both found and being contained right now. live scenes. you see the police activity in new york city as they try and get this device out of the way

and into a containment van and ultimately taken care of. but we're left with a lot of questions as we close the show this morning. that does it for us for now. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> we begin with that very breaking news. two more packages found this morning. one addressed to senator cory booker and another to former director of national intelligence james clapper. nbc's investigative reporter tom winters joins me now via phone. tom we're up to 12 potentially suspicious packages. walk us through this. >> shortly after 8:00 a.m. this morning, we first got word the package that was addressed to cory booker but was found at a mail facility in south florida, at that time, we understood it, the package was addressed to booker in camden, new jersey. the package obviously does not appear to have ever made its way there. they were